I'll get around to writing that column soon enough. But for now, I just have to comment on a press release posted at the web site of the Greater New Orleans Republicans. I'll quote their entire press release, a little at a time, with my comments interspersed. In the press release, GNOR expressed their intense displeasure with the Louisiana Republican caucus. For the record, 150 delegate slots at the Louisiana Republican State Convention were up for grabs last Saturday at the caucus, and Ron Paul supporters won 111 of the 150, or 74 percent.

GNOR press release"The Greater New Orleans Republicans call for the resignation of the leadership of the Republican Party of Louisiana in response to the debacle of (Saturday’s) caucus."

My commentsI agree with the resignation part. I just disagree with the when and the why. I think they should have resigned four years ago after they broke several of their own rules in an effort to stifle the efforts of Ron Paul's supporters. Alternatively, they could resign on general principle, the general principle being that they have a long history of supporting candidates who support undeclared wars of aggression overseas, a war on civil liberties here at home, and borrowing and spending ad nauseam, if not ad infinitum.

As for the caucus being a "debacle," I must confess that I would agree with that assessment if I supported Ted Kennedy, uh, that is, Mitt Romney.

Moving along . . .

GNOR press release“ 'We congratulate Ron Paul supporters for apparently capturing their first state delegation in this Presidential election cycle through an excellent get out the vote effort today,' stated GNOR Chairman Sarah Roy."

My commentsHey, Sarah: Only six days before the Louisiana debacle, in Minnesota Ron Paul won 20 of 24 Congressional District delegates to the Republican National Convention, with 16 more delegates still up for grabs. I stink at math, but I'm pretty sure Ron Paul won Minnesota (okay, so at worst he could tie for first).

GNOR press release“However, the result of this ill-conceived and confusing caucus clearly does not represent the will of the vast majority of Louisiana Republican voters as Ron Paul recently received only six percent of the vote in the Louisiana Presidential Primary.”

"Months ago the Ron Paul campaign looked at Louisiana and decided that the best strategy was to concentrate on the caucus. The rules in Louisiana apportion 20 of the states delegates from the votes in its statewide primary, which was held last March and 24 delegates from it caucus system which elects delegates at the precinct level to go to district conventions where they elect delegates to go to the state convention where the final delegation will be chosen.

"What would you do? Spend your money trying to win the 20? Or spend your money trying to win the 24?"

GNOR press release"This odd and undemocratic result unfortunately will embarrass and distract Governor Jindal, as he labors to pass his Legislative agenda, and presumed Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, as he clinches the nomination and turns his attention to defeating President Barack Obama."

My commentsThe result was certainly not "odd." The so-called "leadership" of Louisiana's Republican party probably saw this result coming a mile away. After all, they had to have known that Ron Paul had recently drawn several crowds of several thousand people in many parts of the country. Combine that with ballots that are: a) paper; b) guarded by a sheriff's deputy; and c) counted under the watchful eyes of an observer from each campaign (as opposed to hackable, trail-less, electronic voting we are subjected to at the primaries), and what should we expect?

The result was undemocratic? Hmmm. It looked like one person, one vote to me, with no qualified voter turned away, and with paper ballots counted in public.

The result "will embarrass and distract Governor Jindal"? Really? You mean embarrass him more than his laughable endorsement of Rick "Oops" Perry? Distract him more than his out-of-state fund-raising junkets? If he can be distracted from anything of importance by the result of a caucus, GNOR should be calling for his resignation as well.

The result "will embarrass and distract . . . Mitt Romney, as he clinches the nomination and turns his attention to defeating President Barack Obama"? First, Romney has not clinched the nomination. Second, he SHOULD be embarrassed by being overwhelmed by a candidate who has been alternately ridiculed and ignored by the national and local media, not to mention the political machinery. And again, if Romney can be distracted from something so important by a single caucus defeat (however humiliating), he shouldn't be running for dog catcher, let alone president.

GNOR press release"Several members of GNOR ran in the caucus, and GNOR, along with the Romney Campaign, attempted to motivate Republican voters to turn out. However, sparse and obscure voting locations, morning voting hours, scheduling during the Zurich Classic, Jazz Fest and Legislative Session, combined with setting the caucus so late in the Primary season that all major challengers to Mitt Romney had dropped out, made it all but impossible to offer voters a rationale to caucus."

My commentsAll those things didn't make it all but impossible for Ron Paul's supporters to offer voters a rationale to caucus. I wonder why. I know a few of the people who were elected at the caucus. They have never been involved in politics, yet they crushed many long-established party insiders, including two former U.S. Congressmen. And the Greater New Orleans Republicans, instead of looking at what makes Ron Paul so appealing, look for excuses.

GNOR press release"Further, after Rick Santorum, who garnered the most votes in the Louisiana Primary, left the race, members of GNOR proposed a unity ticket, comprised of supporters of Santorum, Gingrich and Romney, allowing those who would support the eventual nominee to run as one. However, state party leaders, unwilling to share delegates with the Romney campaign, vetoed the approach."My commentsFirst, don't ever say "comprised of," dammit! It ain't good grammar. Look it up.

Second, maybe "state party leaders" finally got one right by being "unwilling to share delegates with the Romney campaign." After all, Romney has had more positions than David Vitter in a brothel, and a lot of Republicans simply don't trust him. Okay, they trust that he'll flip-flop from here to eternity, but that's where the trust ends.

GNOR press release"Today’s debacle clearly lies at the feet of State Party leaders, who with combined arrogance and incompetence, ignored warnings that the Byzantine system they had conjured could be manipulated, ignored calls for unity and common sense, and instead caused the State of Louisiana, Governor Jindal and likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney embarrassment. They should own up to their misdeeds and resign."

My commentsCool. Establishment Republicans calling other establishment Republicans arrogant, incompetent and lacking common sense. I don't think I've ever seen Democrats say that about Democrats, though they certainly should.

And did they hold caucuses in Byzantium?

Comments

Freedomfalcon

05/08/2012 1:00am

She is calling for stealing with unity(I guess that's better than the other kind.) Well, the leadership of the LAGOP did that the last time. This time lawsuits would have punitively stripped the wealth from this skeleton organizations members.
Roger Villerie, knowing it was inevitible, passed the torch to the next
generation of Louisiana Republicans. Republicans who will fight and win out over the Marxist Leninisim that has demorialized the country from positions of power in the douopolistic uni-party of tyranny and looting of the Democrat/Republican party since before Joe McCarthy
learned the Pentagon financed the rise of Communisim in Russia,
China(imagine his surprise.)
To be fair, as much as I personally don't like Florists, Roger Villerie provided an even playing field this time. He hired third party contractors who ran A FAIR ELECTION! Let's have a brief look at the under appreciated signifigance of this with relation to the
business cycle.
Roger Villerie a known prior Goldwater supporter(the Ron Paul of his day)challenged the next generation with lies, pandering, thievery, and nastiness of all manner when last cycle he shot the works at the Ron Paul effort using every dirty trick from within his Voodoo bag of underhanded prior experience. Experience? Now in Roger Villerie's defense(I was his single most ardent critic), what wisdom is there in handing a party to innocence only to see it frittered when it cannot defend itself from a future dirty trick? His greater wisdom was to steel us through adversity. To teach us the lesson. Which lesson? He taught us the lesson that politics is a dirty business. He was treacherous to our efforts four years ago. But, in a fatherly performance art display of his unappreciated wisdom, he then showed us his idea of the way a pure election should be carried out.
See, it's not just your right to vote---- Its your duity to stay behind to count the fucking vote. This is what Roger has been trying to say unsupported for a very long time untill now. May God bless Roger Villerie. May God forgive me for the names I've called him over the last few years.
I personally certified the vote in my location. I watched the entire show and we had a real election there on that day. Roger let that happen. But, he made us bring a real campaign with us. The last time he was made to steal a result from a collection of volunteers with no official connection to the campaign.
Let's not be too quick to dispatch with Roger Villerie.
I was there!
Carter Lee